Innovations in the computer and telecommunications industry have led to an increase in the number of automated systems capable of running largely without human operators. For example, modern telecommunications switching systems automatically route hundreds of thousands of telephone calls from one transmission line to another transmission line. Predictably, these systems are extremely complex. Further, in some instances these systems provide critical services, such as the emergency police help line 911.
Consequently, software and hardware based systems have been established to monitor these automated systems, set off an alarm if any problems are detected, and to notify select human operators to correct the problem. These "monitoring" systems permitted many systems to operate without any human operators at all. These systems are loosely referred to as "unattended" systems.
For example, if an automobile is running low on oil or gas, a warning light is turned on to inform the driver of the vehicle. A more sophisticated monitoring system may include a Messaging system that automatically dials a telephone number of a repair person, and may even provide a message with information concerning the problem.
The problem with the monitoring systems described above is that the Messaging system is unreliable. There is no assurance that a repair person has received proper notification of an alarm. For example, if a monitoring system is programmed to contact a repair person using a telephone number for a pager in response to an alarm, there is no way for the system to determine whether the page was ever received. It could be that the pager is not turned on, or has run out of batteries, is out of range, and so forth. Moreover, conventional monitoring systems are not capable of determining where an appropriate human operator might be located, and calling the human operator at the number corresponding to that location. In addition, conventional monitoring systems do not attempt to minimize the amount of time required to solve the problem forming the basis for the alarm, and also minimizing the inconvenience to the human operators.
In view of the foregoing, it can be appreciated that a substantial need exists for a monitoring system which solves the above-discussed problems.